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Intermediate school holds fine arts festival

Intermediate school holds fine arts festival

March 09, 2006|SHERRY VAN ARSDALL Tribune Staff Writer

EDWARDSBURG -- Fourth-grader Kristen Miller involved 10 people in her science project. She asked her grandma, Jan Rutten, to be one of the participants. "I chewed gum and found out I chew fast and get rid of the flavor faster," Rutten said. The project compared five varieties of gum and gathering data to see how long the flavor lasted for each brand. Then Kristen made a display to exhibit her research and findings during the Fine Arts Festival at Edwardsburg Intermediate School last week. Kristin was happy with the third place she received for her entry in the Science Fair. "It took me three days to complete my project," Kristin said. "I like science and getting to experiment with things." The results from her experiment showed that each flavor lasted for different lengths of time. For Extra, it was 68 minutes; Big Red, 58 minutes; Winterfresh, 49 minutes; Juicy Fruit, 26 minutes and Doublemint, 24 minutes. In the cafetorium, fourth-and fifth-graders looked at the displays with their parents and family members. Trevor Peffley was happy with his third place ribbon for his cereal project. "I picked cereal because it seemed like an interesting idea," the 9-year-old said. He learned that children need to eat cereal for breakfast. "If they don't, it's harder to pay attention and if they do, it helps to stay awake," the fourth-grader said. It helps him to learn better after eating his favorites like Cheerios and Cocoa Pebbles. And doing a science project is a good way to learn. "It's fun and a good way to remember," Trevor said. Musical performances were held in the gym featuring students learning to play recorders, as well as the band and choir. "This is an opportunity to showcase the students' work in an open house setting," said Principal Scott Moellenberndt. Artwork and other projects were on display in the hallways and classrooms in the school. Amber Smith found two pictures of her artwork which ended up proving difficult for the fifth-grader to create. "We had to draw contour lines without looking at our paper," she said. "It was hard." The pencil lines were disconnected and looked like squiggles on one picture and the other was made using modified contour lines. "I could look at the paper now and then," Amber said. Then she found the map from her social studies class and pointed it out to her parents. She had to draw a map of a pretend country and added mountains, rivers, and cities. The 10-year-old pointed to Hershey Hill and Milky Way Mountains. "I don't remember the name of my country, but I had a chocolate theme going," Amber said, giggling. Staff writer Sherry Van Arsdall: svanarsdall@sbtinfo.com (269) 687-7004